Bench type toilets are commonly found in various transportation vehicles such as passenger aircraft, trains and buses and lodging facilities. In these types of vehicles, the aisles are normally very narrow and the lavatories are in very confined areas. The mobility of disabled persons has been increasing in recent years to include not only social and business life, but travel as well. Where once a disabled individual was expected to restrict travel away from home, today these special people are travelling around the world to conduct business or to vacation. The need for travel mobility felt by the disabled has been frustrated due to the lack of proper facilities and equipment aboard transportation vehicles. Over the years, seat cost per mile has become paramount in the financial success of a company and has increasingly dictated the size and shape of passenger vehicle interiors.
Hence, narrow aisles, small lavatories and restricted use of transportation vehicle facilities has limited travel by the disabled communities. While many designs for wheelchairs have been offered for use by the disabled aboard vehicles, they generally suffer from one or more disadvantages. Some require that the disabled passenger be limited to a number of seats adjacent the wide aisles, and are too large to enter a lavatory to place the occupant over a toilet. Conventional wheelchairs for toilet use, such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,592,405; 4,052,087 and 4,067,409, straddle the common type toilet, and these cannot be used in vehicles with bench type toilets. The bench type toilets are enclosed in their lower extremities by a shroud which eliminates the straddling capability of wheelchairs of this type. Two wheel conveyances for the disabled must be tilted back to lift front supports off the floor and to allow forward motion. The tilting feature is objectionable to many of the disabled because the rotation of the chair transfers control from the disabled to the person navigating. Also, variation of the chair attitude due to the difficulty of controlling forward motion and position is unnerving to many.
Other special devices have been used for moving the disabled. For instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 635,575 to Ecole, dated July 12, 1977, there is disclosed a transfer device which moves an invalid from a bed to a wheelchair and vice-versa, by means of a platform mounted on rails. The leg support and foot rest of the device must be elevated to a horizontal position before the person may begin the transfer and the person must be in a horizontal position during this transfer. Another such device is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,648,849 to N. B. Wass, et al, dated Aug. 18, 1953. This device provides a means for positioning an occupant over a bathtub to take a shower. The patient is transferred from a wheelchair to an invalid chair and then translated over the bathtub. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 3,413,667 to D. T. Swain, dated Dec. 3, 1968, describes a combination of stretcher table and chair for transporting an occupant within a hospital or similar facility. It is convertible to either a wheelchair, litter or table. However, there is no suggestion that this apparatus could be used in a toilet.